Malachi Hacohen

Malachi Haim Hacohen, Bass Fellow and Professor of History and Religion at Duke University, earned his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 1993 with a dissertation on Karl Popper, following an M.Phil. in 1983, M.A. in 1982, and B.A. summa cum laude in History and Political Science from Bar-Ilan University in 1979. He joined Duke in 1993 as Assistant Professor of History, progressing to Associate Professor in 2000, Fred W. Shaffer Associate Professor from 2001-2006, and Bass Fellow and Professor since 2006, with additional professorships in Political Science, Religion, and German Studies since 2023. Hacohen previously taught as Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Humanities and Co-Chair of the History-Literature Program at Reed College from 1989 to 1993 and as Preceptor in Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University from 1984 to 1988. As Director of the Religions and Public Life Initiative at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, he coordinates the Triangle Intellectual History Seminar involving Duke, NCSU, UNC, and Wake Forest University, and the North Carolina Jewish Studies Seminar. He has led an international research initiative on Empire, Socialism, and Jews, organizing conferences in Vienna and Duke University.

His research focuses on intellectual history and Jewish European history, particularly Central Europe, including social theory, political philosophy, rabbinic culture from Midrash to Kabbalah and halakhic responsa, the Central European Jewish intelligentsia, nation-state versus empire, Jewish-Christian relations, science and culture in Vienna, international networks of European Jewish émigrés, and trans-Atlantic Cold War liberalism. Hacohen's book Karl Popper – The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna (Cambridge University Press, 2000) received the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize from the American Historical Association in 2002 and the Victor Adler Staatspreis from Austria in 2003. His Jacob & Esau: Jewish European History Between Nation and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2019) addresses pivotal themes in the field. He has published numerous articles in leading journals, such as "Dilemmas of Cosmopolitanism: Karl Popper, Jewish Identity, and ‘Central European Culture’" in Journal of Modern History (1999), "The Strange Fact That the State of Israel Exists: The Cold War Liberals Between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism" in Jewish Social Studies (2009), and "Typology and the Holocaust: Erich Auerbach and Judeo-Christian Europe" in Religions (2012). Hacohen held the Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship from the ACLS in 2003-2004, was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences in 2006-2007, National Humanities Center in 2002-2003, IFK Vienna in 2001, and Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in 2016-2017, along with Fulbright, Mellon, Whiting, and several Duke teaching awards including the Lublin Distinguished Award for Teaching Excellence in 1996-1997.

Professional Email: mhacohen@duke.edu